Hundreds show up concerning FSA office closure

April 20, 2007

HIGHMORE (AP) - About 350 people showed up Thursday night to discuss a proposal to close several Farm Service Agency offices in South Dakota - including the one at Highmore. FSA state Director Steve Cutler said some farmers will have to drive a little farther, but they'll continue to get good service. Opponents said closing the office in Highmore will be an economic hit to the town because area farmers will have to go an extra 23 miles to Miller for farm program assistance, and they'll also do their shopping there. ''We just can't afford to have it close,'' said Jan Busse, who owns Prairie Pioneer Garage, an implement dealer. He said his business would suffer because fewer people will drive into town. ''We need every potential customer we've got.'' Cutler disagreed that FSA offices help the economic vitality of the small communities that host them. A town's economic vitality is in the people who live there, not in an FSA office, he said. People need to do business in their towns instead of shopping ''in the Wal-Marts of the world,'' Cutler said. ''The only people who can save your small town are the people who live there,'' he said. ''I'm not sure that the economic vitality of Highmore or Claremont or Miller is dependent on my offices. It's dependent on you folks who live here, and you will determine the future of this community.'' As a cost-savings measure, Cutler has proposed closing offices in Highmore, Kadoka, White River, Timber Lake, Dupree, Woonsocket and Mound City. The Timber Lake and Dupree FSA offices would be consolidated into a new office at Eagle Butte. Cutler has said his plan is a belt-tightening move that would better equalize the workload among FSA staff in South Dakota and save up to $100,000. Farmer Gary Haiwick said that instead of driving six miles, it will be a 46-mile trip to Miller and back for his FSA business. ''The government claims they're trying to help out the individual family farms, but this is penalizing them a little more because it shuts everything down while they're gone,'' said Haiwick. Conservation is important and will become more so, said Jim Faulstich, a Hyde County farmer. ''I think the taxpayers would probably be more concerned about keeping quality conservation on the land than they would saving $15,000 at the expense of the producers in Hyde County,'' he said. Once federal officials review the plan, more meetings will be held and a final report written on how best to streamline the agency within the state, Cutler said. The American Corn Growers Association (ACGA) has called for an immediate halt to the closing of scores of Farm Service Agency (FSA) county offices. “This is not the time to be closing offices because we do not know what the next farm bill will require and there will most likely be a new farm disaster bill to be implemented to cover losses of the 2005 to 2007 crop years,” said ACGA Chief Executive Larry Mitchell, a former Deputy Administrator of FSA. ACGA has endorsed legislation introduced by Representative Stephanie Herseth, D-S.D., (H.R.1649) which will prohibit the closure or relocation of any county office of the Farm Service Agency until at least one year after the enactment of the new farm bill. ACGA warned that until it is known what programs will be contained in the new farm bill or how it will be administered, and until Farm Service Agency (FSA) computer problems have been mitigated, it is ill-advised to reduce the FSA farm program delivery platform.